We must start taking climate change seriously now and plan ahead
Stabroek News, Tuesday, March 18th 2008
Dear Editor,
Ideally, I do not venture into areas in which I am ignorant. However, I
will make this an exception. I have just come out of a climate change
and governance workshop in London, part of the Commonwealth Day
celebrations and wish to endorse the sentiment of Mr Clairmonte Lye.
We cannot continue to sit in ignorance of climate change and like some
of the Pacific Islands hold on to a perverse incentive to just 'wait
and see' and when disaster strikes, expect the international agencies
to rush to our assistance. This is not to say that the rest of the
world is far ahead of us either as it seems that only a few are
prepared to take the issue of climate change seriously and it is hoped
that a change in the US presidency will lend support to an
international regime which can seriously commit to sustainable
development.
I am glad that in Guyana's case, while civil society seem blissful in
their ignorance or silence, the President is awake and has even had
climate change on the Commonwealth Ministers of Finance meeting agenda
last year. But we need civil society fully on board as it is the only
way we can sustain interest and voice on the issue.
Why am I suddenly awake? The answer simply is a woman called Meredith
Hooper (author of The Ferocious Summer, named as the Daily Mail Science
Book of the Year in 2007) witnessed first hand the effects of global
warming - higher temperatures in the Antarctic peninsular, which means
more snow (as a result of warmer air holding more moisture) which
affects the breeding grounds for the penguins (Adelie) while the
melting ice sheets as a result of the warmer air changes the salinity
in the water and drives away the shrimp like krill on which the
penguins feed. We never saw dinosaurs. Our great grandchildren may
never know what penguins look like.
But that is not all. It is not just that the weather patterns change
and there is heat when there should be snow/rain and there are
unexpected storms and heatwaves which are all dictated by the waves and
currents in the ocean. It is not just that the sinking ice sheets mean
that the level of the sea will rise and the islands in the Pacific and
countries under the sea will be inundated and people will need to
relocate. The frightening reality is that the food that we consume
depends on our geographical characteristics. For example, in Guyana, we
depend on rice and sugar as our main exports and these are planted and
harvested according to our traditionally two main seasons.
We have witnessed first hand how these seasons have changed in the past
few years and how these and other crops have been devastated by floods,
excess rainfall and drought. Did we link it to climate change?
Now just imagine if the world continues along this path of development,
without factoring the environment as one of its factors of production
to be used sustainably and carbon emissions continue unabated in the
race to develop faster. We will have a world of superpowers clashing
with hundreds of new factories and cars with the backlash of rapidly
changing weather patterns of heat and snow/rain and higher sea levels.
There will be less sea food as the water salinity changes and less
crops as the periods of harvests become sorter or populations have to
move to different locations which will affect the crops actually
cultivated.
The population explosion has not helped as it demands products which
consume trees or the clearing of the trees (which breathe in very
carbon dioxide). What does this mean in the distant future? The weather
changes will consume low lying land. Its effect on crops and sea food
will be such that there will be a diminished supply of food, and much
of the world will have to go without food especially the poorer
countries. Food prices will go up and we will be in a situation which
we never imagined possible.
I remember Charles Ceres telling me just after the 2005 floods that
Guyana needs to shift its capital into the interior as in another 20
years, the coastland will be under water. I heard, but like many
others, I did not take it seriously. The government will shore up the
sea defences and we will all be happy.
Guyana needs to start planning ahead. We can kill each other in
politics, but there will be nothing to fight over in another 50 years
if we do not act now. There is need for a strong public relations
campaign so that farmers do not destroy the waterways in the use of
fertilizer and pesticides, so that residents are aware of the dangers
posed by mining and logging and the other economic activities.
Climate change in effect means that even renewable resources will
become less renewable.
Guyana needs to be in a position of strength to bargain in the trading
of emissions for its own development. It needs its people behind it.
As the Pacific Islands are finding out, they are not being taken
seriously by the west because they simply do not matter in the
hegemonic scheme. Guyana has its forests on its side and we need to
leverage that. The government needs to seriously consider its
investment programme, including its housing programme and public sector
investment programme and how this affects catchment areas for water
which compromises drainage. And civil society, of course, needs to be
on board, ever alert.
As Meredith said, when the rain comes heavier than usual it does not
come with a label 'this one is as a result of climate change'. The
climate has been undergoing changes for a long, long time. What we are
seeing now is an acceleration of that climate change. It was in the
1940s when the UK stationed its Royal Navy in Antarctica but could not
leave them there with nothing else to do, that they were given
instructions to monitor the temperature every three hours. It was only
in the 1990s with the wide use of computers that the data was assembled
into a programme and someone decided to see what the trend was and
discovered that the temperature was rising. The temperature will fall
and it will become hotter. That is the reality of climate change.
Whether the heat is a result of more greenhouse gases or more heat
being felt from the sun is a matter for scientists to decide but we are
reeling from its effects.
It is a wake up call. Of course nature has a way of healing herself.
She will. But at what price? The BBC website (science & nature) is
educational on what earth looked like millions of years ago, what plant
life existed and what animals were there. We seem headed to change the
face of the earth for another few million years.
Yours faithfully,
Gitanjali Singh
No comments:
Post a Comment